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Togbe Ngoryifia Céphas Kosi Bansah, a.k.a King Bansah
of the Hohoe, is a real African king who doesn’t believe in
old-fashioned methods of governance.
He prefers to live in Germany and rules his subjects via Skype! The
66-year-old king moved to Germany several years ago as a foreign
exchange student – he fell in love with the country and decided to stay.
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Interestingly, King Bansah was named successor to the crown in 1987,
when his grandfather – the reigning king – died.
He was chosen over his father and older brother, simply because they
were left handed. The trait is apparently considered unclean and
indicative of dishonesty in Hohoe.
The coronation ceremony took place in 1992, but King Bansah decided him
being a king didn’t require moving back to Africa.
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He still lives in Ludwigshafen, near Frankfurt, with his German wife
Gabriele, where he runs a car repair garage and also finds the time to
govern the 200,000 Hohoe people in southeastern Ghana, through Skype and
telephone calls.
According to news reports, he even stays up late at night to rule on
tribal disputes and makes sure to visit his kingdom at least six times a
year.
Although he remained in Germany, he hasn’t allowed the distance to
affect his duties as king. He has campaigned extensively on behalf of
his country and helped secure medical aid. |
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He also sends water purification equipment back home quite regularly.
King Bansah was recently in the news for a burglary that happened in his
home. He apparently returned from an evening out to discover that
thieves had ransacked his home and stolen four of his gold crowns.
Several other pieces of royal regalia, including gold chains from his
grandparents, were missing as well. “Thieves had come over the balcony
on the first floor, prised the door open, smashed the cabinets and
ransacked everything,” the king told the UK Times. |
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The stolen items were ostensibly hundreds of years old and worth around
20,000 euros ($25,000).
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